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Project Sign Progress Report, 1948

U.S. Department of War · 1948 · 45 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is an initial Project Sign progress report dated April 1948, sent from Headquarters, Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force. It tabulates about 100 unidentified flying object reports received through February 1948, covering shape, size, number of objects, speed and exhaust trails. Dr. Irving Langmuir found the data insufficient for a positive identification. Headquarters judged that a low aspect ratio aircraft using boundary layer control could reproduce many of the reported characteristics.

From the source: Release of 2026-07-10 Incident: 1948, Various. This file contains an initial report from the Air Materiel Command regarding Project Sign. Project Sign was a 1948-1949 U.S. Air Force program to investigate the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFO). The report details 100 UFO sightings from 1947-1948. The file also contains an article excerpted from “The Aeroplane,” an aviation-focused periodical magazine published between 1911 and 1968, titled “The Biology of the Flying Saucer.”

•Incident Observer ' s
No .
1
la
lb
le
l d
le
2
3
4
5
6
7
9
Occupation
1st Lt, UJAF
:,/::,gt, 0::i,v'
Uninown
s/sgt, USAF
Pfc, USAF
~fot stated
:Uaj, USAF
liajor, USAF
Capt, USAF
Patr olman, ?ortland
Police Dept.
Sgt, Oregon Police
Patr olman, Por tland
Police Dept., former
Air Force pilot
Patrolman, Portland
Police Dept. Pri
vate pilot
Patrolman, Portland
Police Dept . ?ri
vate pilot
Capt., Harbot pilot
Jo1aneuvers
1lone - horizontal fl1gnt
1"ot stated
t-:et stated
Not stated
Flying in tight circle
Horizontal anrl tipht circles
Descended from an intennediate
altitude in an oscillating
fashion almost to the ground,
then started climbing again to
a very high altitude and moved
off slowly in the distance.
Oscillating in a downward twirl-
ing movement
Falling at three times the rate
of a parachute
Dippi nP, up and down in oscillat--
ing motion
Following each otner
Not stated
Str aight line formation; last
disc fluttered very rapidly in
side-way arc
Strai~ht line fonnation ; last
disc fluttered very rapidly in
side-way- are
Discs wo'.lld oscillat e and SOl11131-'
times a full disc would be vis~
ibl e, then a half-moon shape,
t hen nothing at all
Heatner
IiOt stated
.,ot stated
l1ot stated
~!ot stated
!fot stat'3d
!lot stated
Not stated
Not stated
?!ot stated
Not stated
Clear with little
or no cloud f orma
tion
Clear with little
or no cloud forma
tion
Clear with little
or no cloud for.na
tion
Clear with little
or no cloud forma
tion
Not stated
CUiqfiDE~~TIALNND 927545

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Case file, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 45 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.